HARRISBURG (AP) — The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission will continue making payments to the state for transportation needs following the federal government's rejection of a plan to put tolls on Interstate 80, but the amount of those payments will drop off sharply in two years.

MARK SCOLFORO

HARRISBURG (AP) — The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission will continue making payments to the state for transportation needs following the federal government's rejection of a plan to put tolls on Interstate 80, but the amount of those payments will drop off sharply in two years.

The turnpike commission has borrowed heavily to begin pumping money into state coffers for roads, bridges and mass transit as required by a law passed in July 2007. Those payments have already amounted to $962 million.

If I-80 tolls had been approved, the turnpike commission would have been required to increase the payments each year. But the landmark transportation law also included a provision that allows those payments to decline to $450 million in 2010-11 if I-80 tolls were rejected, as federal regulators did Thursday.

The denial of the tolling plan means the turnpike commission's obligation will be funded instead by toll rate increases of 25 percent next year and about 3 percent annually after that.

The turnpike commission paid the state $750 million in the fiscal year that expired in June, the current year's payments are projected to be $850 million, and next year's will be $900 million.

"They're still collecting tolls," said Chuck Ardo, a spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell. "They're collecting tolls on the turnpike and have plans to increase the tolls on the turnpike. So the payments on the bonds ... will come from those tolls."

Turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo said Friday the loans the commission has taken out to make its payments toward roads, bridges and transit were not predicated on getting approval for I-80 tolls.

"Even if we wanted to, nobody on Wall Street would be crazy enough to let us do that," he said. "When we started this process we knew from the very beginning there could be a 'no' waiting at the end of it."

Rendell is pushing the Legislature to approve an alternative to I-80 tolls in which nearly all the turnpike system would be leased to a private entity for 75 years, in return for a $12.8 billion upfront payment. Tolls would increase by 25 percent next year and then would be capped at either 2.5 percent or inflation, whichever is higher.

DeFebo said the turnpike commission is trying to determine its next step after spending millions of dollars on the failed I-80 toll application. The decision by federal highway regulators raised questions about the future of related projects and contracts the turnpike has undertaken. Proposals for an open-road "gantry" tolling system on I-80 are due Monday, for example.

"Most of it's going to be put on hold," DeFebo said. "As far as what happens next, we just don't know."

Pennsylvania Transportation Partners, the entity established by high bidders Abertis Infraestructuras of Spain and Citi Infrastructure Investors to lease the turnpike, has renewed its efforts to gain legislative approval for the $12.8 billion deal.

On Friday, the group released a code of conduct that, among other things, would ban campaign donations from its managers to elected officials that would "influence public policy relative to the turnpike or PTP operations" and "have full transparency" of operations, income and revenue, expenditures and debt payments.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.